The Man Who Fell to EarthIf a stranger--an alien--were to observe us up close, unfamiliar with our customs and behaviors beyond what we transmit over the television, what would their interpretation of us be? What kind of impressions would they have of earthlings as a result of our programs and dramas, newscasts and sitcoms? Would they view us with apprehension, fear, or maybe pity, even sympathy? The Man Who Fell to Earth is a story of a reconnaissance mission from light years away by an alien concealed--if only superficially--as an eccentric inventor named Thomas Jerome Newton (David Bowie).
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It is rather hard to get past the film without the magnetic presence that David Bowie has as the lead. To quote the chameleon-like superstar's work, he is a "starman waiting in the sky...he'd like to come and meet us, but he thinks he'd blow our minds." But is Thomas really here to visit Earth on a mission of peace or good will? Not entirely; his initial efforts to raise money to build a ship to return home--to deliver the findings of his mission--involve an effort to pawn off a collection of wedding rings. When this proves inefficient, his work necessitates that he patent his extraterrestrial knowledge and make millions on the quick, creating a technological empire out of thin air. His contributions to human civilization are, in fact, quite unintentional--he is operating on mercenary purposes, trying to return home to his family on their arid planet. Thomas is still acclimating to the planet Earth, and has trouble with motion and other things, like the consumption of alcohol--he is partial to the water of the planet, which coincides with the purpose of his journey. After a fainting episode in an elevator in Santa Fe, he is looked after by Mary Lou (Candy Clark), who is pulled into Thomas' orbit and spends increasing amounts of time with him, eventually fostering an intimate relationship with the aloof genius inventor. Maybe Thomas sees this as an opportunity to study the human species more closely, maybe he is longing for the intimacy of his own wife, but he does begin to abandon his defenses to the foreign elements of Earth, and let in the parts he hasn't understood from the airwaves transmitted to his galaxy light years away. In an effort to construct his spaceship to the stars, he recruits a maverick scientist who has been lacking direction, flitting his time away with nubile coeds and getting drunk, Dr. Nathan Bryce (Rip Torn). Thomas seems to have some kind of connection--or at least understanding--of Bryce, and their working relationship begins as one of mutual benefit, although Bryce doesn't quite trust the elusive millionaire with his dreams of space.
Director Nicholas Roeg has a distinct cinematic style, one which often features a multitude of cutaways to seemingly unrelated scenes, drawing comparisons between two sometimes similar, sometimes disparate events. As Dr. Bryce is having a fling with one young girl, Thomas--under the new pseudonym of Mr. Sussex--is conversing with and getting to know Mary Lou, the implication of the editing--and Thomas' knowing look--that he has some kind of sympathetic connection with Bryce, that he is understanding human intimacy for the first time, and beginning to equate that feeling with Mary Lou, if only subliminally at first. Is Thomas psychic? Does he have extrasensory perception which give him a kind of sympathetic connection with human life, and gives him some kind of key insight that aids him in his efforts to complete his mission? There is a lot which is suggested to make this seem the case, but if it is, then it is equally sad that his understanding of humanity and sympathetic adoption of human vice results in his own undoing. Just as Dr. Bryce was corrupted at the start by drink and lust, and is "made clean" by Thomas' intervention, so too is Thomas' own well-being corrupted by those same influences, leaving him a consumptive wreck, drowning his sorrows in gin, which Mary Lou frequently endorsed. The gin is an ironic source of his corruption, since it resembles the very water he had sought out to save his family; but this clear liquid only keeps from his mission. Also operating to thwart Thomas' efforts to return home are agents of some undisclosed organisation, who prevent his ascension into the stars, capturing and subjecting him to intense and invasive analysis. This kind of entrapment and scrutiny is made all the more poignant by David Bowie's casting in the role, a superstar who has often been in the spotlight, his every action and move under the camera eye. In the film, the captivity makes him weaker--in part because of the ministrations of alcohol which fosters his enfeeblement--but also by cameras, namely x-ray cameras. The x-ray cameras are metaphoric, using the lens to probe deeper into the superstar's life and being to find out what it is inside him that makes him special, and spread it around, a parasitic kind of photographic autopsy. The conspiracy to destroy Thomas is also reminiscent of the story of Jesus Christ, a scion of a celestial power, "fallen to earth" to preach a gospel--even if Thomas' gospel is auto-developing film--and is destroyed by those whose power base he threatens. Unfortunately for Thomas, his ascendance requires a ship to return home, and he cannot cope with the sins he has taken upon himself.
Recommended for: Fans of, well, David Bowie in a role which seems tailor-suited to his charismatic presence, both alien and almost divine. The Man Who Fell to Earth is a story which makes you wonder if we were to be visited by beings from another world, would we be able to reciprocate the kind of sympathy that they might show us?
Director Nicholas Roeg has a distinct cinematic style, one which often features a multitude of cutaways to seemingly unrelated scenes, drawing comparisons between two sometimes similar, sometimes disparate events. As Dr. Bryce is having a fling with one young girl, Thomas--under the new pseudonym of Mr. Sussex--is conversing with and getting to know Mary Lou, the implication of the editing--and Thomas' knowing look--that he has some kind of sympathetic connection with Bryce, that he is understanding human intimacy for the first time, and beginning to equate that feeling with Mary Lou, if only subliminally at first. Is Thomas psychic? Does he have extrasensory perception which give him a kind of sympathetic connection with human life, and gives him some kind of key insight that aids him in his efforts to complete his mission? There is a lot which is suggested to make this seem the case, but if it is, then it is equally sad that his understanding of humanity and sympathetic adoption of human vice results in his own undoing. Just as Dr. Bryce was corrupted at the start by drink and lust, and is "made clean" by Thomas' intervention, so too is Thomas' own well-being corrupted by those same influences, leaving him a consumptive wreck, drowning his sorrows in gin, which Mary Lou frequently endorsed. The gin is an ironic source of his corruption, since it resembles the very water he had sought out to save his family; but this clear liquid only keeps from his mission. Also operating to thwart Thomas' efforts to return home are agents of some undisclosed organisation, who prevent his ascension into the stars, capturing and subjecting him to intense and invasive analysis. This kind of entrapment and scrutiny is made all the more poignant by David Bowie's casting in the role, a superstar who has often been in the spotlight, his every action and move under the camera eye. In the film, the captivity makes him weaker--in part because of the ministrations of alcohol which fosters his enfeeblement--but also by cameras, namely x-ray cameras. The x-ray cameras are metaphoric, using the lens to probe deeper into the superstar's life and being to find out what it is inside him that makes him special, and spread it around, a parasitic kind of photographic autopsy. The conspiracy to destroy Thomas is also reminiscent of the story of Jesus Christ, a scion of a celestial power, "fallen to earth" to preach a gospel--even if Thomas' gospel is auto-developing film--and is destroyed by those whose power base he threatens. Unfortunately for Thomas, his ascendance requires a ship to return home, and he cannot cope with the sins he has taken upon himself.
Recommended for: Fans of, well, David Bowie in a role which seems tailor-suited to his charismatic presence, both alien and almost divine. The Man Who Fell to Earth is a story which makes you wonder if we were to be visited by beings from another world, would we be able to reciprocate the kind of sympathy that they might show us?